William Pitt the Younger

Born

28 May 1759

Died

23 January 1806

Prime minister from December 1783 at the age of twenty-four, Pitt had rebuilt the public finances after the American war and had three times failed to carry parliamentary reform. He treated the Revolution at first as a French domestic matter and told the Commons in February 1792 that Britain might reasonably expect fifteen years of peace. After the execution of Louis XVI he expelled the French envoy, and the Convention declared war on Britain on 1 February 1793. He financed successive coalitions against France, suspended habeas corpus in 1794 and carried the Two Acts against seditious meetings and writings in 1795. He resigned in 1801 when George III refused Catholic emancipation, returned to office in 1804, and died in January 1806, weeks after Austerlitz destroyed the coalition he had built.

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